Brooks 1949 Advertisement — The New Lightweight Champions (British Cycles and Motor Cycles Overseas)

Three Brooks export advertisements of 1949, all from British Cycles and Motor Cycles Overseas, collected by the IceniCAM Information Service. The source file carries four sheets; the fourth is IceniCAM’s own branding and credit leaf and is not part of the artifact.

WHY THESE MATTER, AND THE DATING RESULT. The first advertisement announces the BROOKS LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONS as new, in the issue of February 1949. The Ebykr archive already holds the leaflet that range is best known from, document 69835, dated June 1950 by its printer code and carrying the passage post 1111 quotes. This advertisement therefore dates the range’s introduction to no later than February 1949, more than a year before that leaflet, and it does so from a printed periodical footer rather than an inference. It also explains the range in Brooks’ own words as a response to new materials: special purpose alloys and the stainless steels then becoming available.

THE SECOND AND THIRD SHEETS ARE THE SAME ADVERTISEMENT IN TWO ISSUES. They are not duplicate scans. The artwork and the text are identical, and the printed footers differ: August-September 1949 at page 367 and October-November 1949 at page 511. Both are reproduced here because the repetition is itself the evidence of an export campaign run across successive issues, and because a future reader meeting two near-identical leaves should be able to see at once why there are two.

WHAT THE SPECIFICATIONS GIVE. This is a rare post-war Brooks statement of size and weight in both imperial and metric units, aimed at overseas buyers, and the two systems agree, which independently confirms the vulgar fractions.

— Sheet 1, British Cycles and Motor Cycles Overseas, February 1949, page 87 —

[Full-page advertisement, black and orange on white, within a fine rule border. A colour photograph of a plain, unsprung, honey-brown sports saddle sits in the centre against a black flash, with the announcement set above it and a paragraph of explanation in small type at the foot.]

BROOKS

The Finest Saddle in the World

and now – NEW

BROOKS LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONS

Vast progress has been made in recent years in the development of Special Purpose Alloys. Following a careful scientific investigation of these alloys and the stainless steels now available, we have successfully produced a new range of Sports Saddles possessing lightweight and non-corrosive properties of outstanding merit. The introduction of this unique range undoubtedly marks a notable advance in Saddle Design.

J. B. BROOKS & CO. LTD., BIRMINGHAM, ENG.

BRITISH CYCLES and MOTOR CYCLES Overseas, February 1949

— Sheet 2, British Cycles and Motor Cycles Overseas, August-September 1949, page 367 —

[Full-page advertisement on a pale salmon ground. Two saddles are shown in halftone within white ellipses, one above the other, each with its specification beneath. Four orange pennants on wire staffs point inward from the margins, each carrying the same claim in a different language, and the firm’s address sits in a grey amoeba-shaped panel at the lower left.]

BROOKS

The Finest Saddle in the World

Two useful models-which can be delivered immediately-from the BROOKS Range of Cycle Saddles are shown here. The BROOKS name is famous throughout the world and is acknowledged as a guarantee of the highest standard of quality and workmanship in the making of Cycle Saddles.

LA MEILLEURE SELLE DU MONDE

DER BESTE SATTEL IN DER WELT

EL MEJOR SILLIN DEL MUNDO

LA MIGLIORE SELLA NEL MONDO

HET BESTE ZADEL TER WERELD

B.15 SPORTS

Top of Solid Butt Leather two-wire enamelled frame. Size: 11″ x 6 3/4″ x 3 1/8″. 28 cm. x 17 cm. x 8 cm. Weight: 1 lb. 11 oz. 0.765 kilog.

B.73 TOURIST

Top of Solid Butt Leather, mounted on three-coil springs and four-wire bracket. Size: 10 1/2″ x 8 1/4″ x 3 7/8″. 26 cm. x 21 cm. x 10 cm. Weight: 2 lb. 6 oz. 1.077 kilog.

J. B. BROOKS & CO. LTD. GREAT CHARLES STREET, BIRMINGHAM, 3. ENGLAND

BRITISH CYCLES and MOTOR CYCLES Overseas, August-September 1949

— Sheet 3, British Cycles and Motor Cycles Overseas, October-November 1949, page 511 —

[The same advertisement as the preceding sheet, reprinted without alteration in a later issue. The artwork, the text and both specifications are identical; only the footer line and the page number differ.]

BRITISH CYCLES and MOTOR CYCLES Overseas, October-November 1949